Va. to review natural gas fracking rules

The drilling method has spawned a gold rush in the U.S. for the energy resource and given rise to its own environmental movement.

The review comes ahead of a Dallas energy company's plans to drill in tens of thousands of leased acres south and east of Fredericksburg. To date, drilling for natural gas in Virginia has occurred only in the southwest Coalfields region of the state.

The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has assembled an advisory panel of state officials, an industry representative and others to review the state's existing rules on fracking, as the process is informally called. The first meeting is Wednesday in Richmond.